"Cheng Xiao, please go, I don't have time now for you! Don't you see that he's bleeding?
Look, your father is calling you!", Yibo dismissed the girl, while helping Xiao Zhan to stand up.

"Woah your place is so nice. It defines you, tiny, warm, cute and cozy, the same as you are!", Xiao Zhan exclaimed in a nasal voice, after they entered Wang Yibo's one-room apartment.
Then he laid down on the bed, hoping that the annoying  bleeding would finally stop.

"No, no,  it's not good to lie down!
You have to stay in a vertical position and sit with your face slightly bent. Apply pressure on the nose in its soft area to help stop the bleeding. Press both nostrils  while using your mouth to breathe.", Yibo explained while pulling  the armchair closer to the bed  to make it easier for Xiao Zhan to sit in.

"Really? You sound professional, did I understand wrongly that you studied Economics, not Med?
Hmm,  I always thought that lying onto my back would stop the blood from flowing, but I guess I was wrong all of this time. Okay, I will shut up now and follow  the doc's advice!", Xiao Zhan smiled, then did what Yibo told him to do.

"You understood correctly, I studied Economics, but I know this kind of stuff, because I did a lot of research during my father's illness. He often had nose bleeds, especially after his chemotherapy  sessions.
You gave me quite  a fright!", Yibo said, crouching before the sitting man to check out his nose. "It stopped, thank god! Now you can lie down and take some rest, until I will greet and feed BaiXiangGuo."

"I want to greet her, too, and introduce myself. Don't worry, I feel alright now.", Xiao Zhan stood up and walked to the turtle tank.
"Hi, BaiXiangGuo, my name is Xiao Zhan, nice to meet you!", he said, trying to lure the pet with   a piece of food. 

"She likes you, and I must tell you that she is very picky!", Yibo smiled, handing more food to Xiao Zhan. 

"I like you BaiXiangGuo, too, and I am not less picky than you. 
But, how would you know that she likes me?"

"A happy turtle is one that will go after her meals eagerly when it's feeding time.
I know she likes you because she takes the food from your hand. And she  doesn't eat from others than me, not as I had that many visitors, but just saying, ha, ha!", Yibo laughed.

But his laughter  choked into a gasp when Xiao Zhan's fingertips brushed gently against his hand while taking the piece of pet food.
He pretended to cough to cover his out-of-place gasp, even though it seemed that Xiao Zhan didn't notice it…Or did he pretend to not notice?
 

"Is this your dad's  sweater you were talking about?", Xiao Zhan asked, pointing to the clothes placed on the armchair's backrest.

"Yes, I keep it there because, sometimes when I can't fall asleep, it's enough to look at that sweater and imagine that it's my dad sitting in the armchair, reading my favorite fairy tale in his gentle voice full of love. God, I miss him!", Yibo  sighed, suppressing the tear  b at the corner of his eye.

He startled when Xiao Zhan pulled him in a tight embrace, with his chin buried  in his neck crock and whispered:
"Don't cry, your dad wants you to be happy! He is happy too, watching you from up there and seeing that you're not alone anymore!"
 

Then he overly surprised Yibo with his weird request:
"Can I ask something from you? Take it as  your Christmas present for me. Can I have the sweater? You will not regret it, I promise. Besides, you said you can't wear it anyway."

"Of course, you can have it, but are you sure that you want it?", Yibo asked in confusion.

"Yes, thank you very much, as I said, you won't regret it
You are a good man, Wang Yibo! Your dad is proud of you and is bragging to the angels with you! That's why I will ask you one more thing!
Only because you're a good man.", Xiao Zhan said, taking Yibo's hands into his and looking deeply in his eyes.
About your girlfriend…you treated her like sh!t, you didn't even say hello to her! Did you two have a fight or something?"

"What in the world are you talking about? How could I say hello to her,  didn't you say that we shouldn't go to the hospital, that MianMian is under some medical investigation?", Yibo asked, understanding nothing, especially that Xiao Zhan was increasingly getting furious for some reason.

"Leave my MeiMei aside from your dirty businesses! I was talking about that girlfriend, your real girlfriend, over there!
She told me everything, when she pulled me aside to whisper something to me! She told me that you are her boyfriend who loves her like crazy!
Like crazy!
Why did you lie to us?! Why did you lie to my little sister, to my family? TO ME?!", Xiao Zhan shouted.

"Xiao Zhan Ge, please calm down and listen to me!
I didn't lie, I mean, not in this matter!...That girl lied, not me! 
Cheng Xiao is the daughter of the block manager, living one floor higher than  me.  She works as a cashier at the supermarket nearby, thus we meet quite often, because I do the groceries at that supermarket.
Sadly she is screwed at her head, poor soul! She also thinks sometimes that  she is an alien who will save the planet from the attack of zombies.
Her obsession with me is annoying, yeah, but I tolerate her, because her father told me that she is mentally unstable and he's always scared that she could  harm herself or who knows what. And I don't want to be me the cause of that."

"Alright, I will choose to believe you, but…Please, promise me to not hurt the people I love, please don't hurt my family, and especially don't hurt my sweet MeiMei!"

"I would never!
I love them dearly, all of them, all of you!", Yibo murmured, on the verge of crying again.

"However, I am absolutely sure that you are lying to me about something!
Let's do a test of  honesty!", Xiao Zhan tormented him again.

"Okay, let's do it!"

"Look into my eyes and tell me that that kiss was just a banishing of bad luck and nothing else!"

"Oh, my God, you are too much!
Yes, it was just that! And it was especially for NaiNai!", Yibo shouted, more  out of emotional anguish than of  anger. 

"Do you have the courage to repeat that kiss now that it's just the two of us, without NaiNai?"

"I have the courage, but I don't think it would be appropriate.
I don't want to be disloyal to MianMian by kissing someone else."

"I'm happy to hear this! 
And I'm happy that there is a big  chance that my guts are wrong this time in thinking that you are lying. 
I apologize for everything. We should go, already.", Xiao Zhan finally put Yibo's misery to an end.

"Yes, we should go, but before that let me bring MianMian's box I was telling you about.", Yibo sighed in relief that he was finally  out of danger, at least for now.

When he took the box from the closet, the lid had opened and something fell down from it and  rolled down on the floor.

He came running into the room , hiding the can of pet food at his back, for no reason:
 "Omg, we must go quickly to MianMian's place, the poor   kitty must be starving by now!
Thank god that I still have three hours to my shift!"

"What  kitty ? I'm sure that MeiMei doesn't have a cat. She actually hates cats, since she was a child and a stray  cat scratched her. Maybe she told you that she got a series of anti-rabies injections!", Xiao Zhan replied, yet hurried to get dressed in his coat.

  "She has a cat, trust me! I know for sure because I am her boyfriend, did you forget?", Yibo grinned as he was finally having an ace in his hands. In the hand hidden at his back better saying.

"Taxi!", Yibo shouted,  wasting  no more time to call for a cab, as one was just parking across his block.
Then he placed an arm around Xiao Zhan's waist:
"Let's try not slip, I don't want you to bleed again!"

"Oh, we're really  lucky to get a cab instantly! 
Now, tell  the  driver the address, you know it for sure , after all  you're MeiMei's boyfriend!", Xiao Zhan told Yibo after climbing up the back seats of the cab.
It was Xiao Zhan's turn to grin, this time!

"Damn!", Yibo cussed in his thoughts. He should have checked out all those papers from the box more carefully, maybe he should have found the address mentioned somewhere, but he got too excited when finding the keycard to MianMian's room door and he forgot to…"Wait!", he remembered that the keycard has a personalized design with a logo of...

"'My Home' pension.", he happily blurted out. Happy that he could escape from Xiao Zhan's suspicious eyes.

"Chaoyang district?", the cab driver asked, starting to set the GPS.

"Yes!", both Xiao Zhan and Yibo replied in one voice, much to Yibo's relief that his bluffing was a winning card.

"Sorry, could you  give me some more details, which one from all those guesthouses and pensions? Because I remember that "My Home" is a big Concern that holds lots of small hotels, pensions, guesthouses and so.", the cab driver ruined Yibo's mood with his question.

"Oh my god!", Yibo shouted, startling both the other men.
" Please wait for a bit, I forgot to take my working badge! It will not take long!
I must run back to my apartment, but GeGe will explain everything to you until I come back!", Yibo jumped off the car and started running, not caring anymore about the slippery icy pavement.

"Jeez, you're smart too, not only cute and y!
But why? I simply can't  figure you out!", Xiao Zhan mumbled, looking out the car window at the running figure and smiling.

"What did you say, sir?", the cab driver turned back to his customer.

"I was just saying that I will explain to you how to find easier the address, while waiting for my friend.", and Xiao Zhan started explaining the route to his MeiMei's place.

"Oh, sh!t! Sh!t!", Yibo shouted after the cab drove off.

"What? Did you forget something in the car?"

"No! It's the sh!t I am angry at!", Yibo replied, stomping his foot.

What's the matter, is sh!t your favorite cuss that you keep repeating it, ha, ha?", Xiao Zhan laughed, amused at Yibo's cute anger.

"It's sh!t, literally sh!t, not a cuss. I stepped into this huge pile of sh!t, hidden in the snow, jeez! I don't understand what this could be,  it's too big for a dog sh!t, maybe a cow, a horse or an elephant did it! Now my boots are dirty, how could I walk  into MianMian's building dirty like this?"

"Ha, ha, you're so cute. It was an elephant casually walking in this neighborhood, for sure. 
No problem, we can solve this easily!", Xiao Zhan laughed, pinching Yibo's red cheek from anger, before grabbing him to lift his whole figure up from the ground and throw him over his shoulder.

"What are you doing, Zhan Ge! I'm too heavy to  be carried like this. Put me down, the building's doorkeeper wouldn't even let us in when seeing us like this! Oh, my god, he will think we are drunk!", Yibo spoke in a strangled voice, getting emotional especially because of the hands wrapped around his thighs!
OIh god, it was like he could feel bare skin onto bare skin through his jeans, and Xiao Zhan's breath  burning his neck skin through his thick collar!

"Don't worry, he will be sympathetic when understanding  that I am just helping my friend who sprained his ankle.
And don't be so upset, there is that old saying that stepping onto a sh!it it brings you luck, ha, ha!"

After explaining themselves to the doorkeeper, he asked them if they were residents of this building, and if not, who they were and where they were going.

"We are going to Xiao MianMian's number 31 condo. I am her brother Xiao Zhan, you don't know me, as I live in Spain. But he is Wang Yibo, her fiance whom you should know already, he often comes to her place.
She is in the hospital and we have to take care of something. Look, we have her keycard, we will leave our IDs to the reception anyway.
But now, please let us in, even though my sister's  fiance is a slender man, he starts to get pretty heavy!", Xiao Zhan huffed, while hopping Yibo's body upper onto his shoulder.

The doorkeeper hurried to open the door for them, while keep apologizing:
"I'm sorry, Lao Wang Yibo for not knowing you, please don't report me to my superiors, I will learn in time. The thing is that I am new here, this is my first day of this job. Now, please go to the elevator, I could take care of the reception  if you would give me your IDs. 
I wish you a speedy recovery Lao Wang Yibo, I wish the same to Miss Xiao MianMian, have a good day sirs!"

Yibo took off his boots before entering MianMian's condo.
He suppressed at the last moment his "Wow!" at the unexpected luxury.
How could a common art student afford to rent such an expensive place to live, how  rich  these people are? Unless MianMian's boyfriend, the real one, would be  some kind of a wealthy money maker. That would explain everything, even that expensive fur coat she was wearing.

"Michi, michi, michito, where did you hide? Come out, don't be mad at us, we apologize for the lateness!", Xiao Zhan called out, shaking the bag of dry pet food they bought on their way here.

"Her name is not Michi. Come, Doge! The yummy treat is here!", Yibo  yelled from  the bathroom after reading the weird name  inlaid on the locket hanging from the cat's neck. He spotted  the scared animal hiding behind the laundry basket.

"Michi is the way we call a cat in Spain, but what kind of name is Doge anyway? 
MeiMei, did you  buy this cat  mistaking it for a dog, ha, ha?", Xiao Zhan laughed, filling the cat's  water bowl  with fresh water.
"She was really thirsty, poor thing."

"At least Doge didn't suffer from hunger. Look, there is a cat  food dispenser here!", Yibo rejoiced, forgetting that he shouldn't act surprised.

"I think  that you should have  known about that dispenser, so why did you get so scared that she would be starving when you remembered about the cat's existence?", Xiao Zhan squinted suspiciously at Yibo, who was in trouble…Again!

"Because, because  MianMian had probably bought the dispenser after I was in here the last time, but why are you asking me this kind of question?", Yibo bravely defied the other's scrutinizing eyes.
Then he made himself busy with organizing the makeup stuff from MianMian's dressing table.

"Look, there is a handwritten note here  under a bottle of medicine!
It's for the cat, oh my god, Doge is sick!", Yibo got worried.

"Let me see! Oh, nothing to worry about too much. Eye drops for feline conjunctivitis, my Nut had it a few times, too. 
Hmm, this is not MeiMei's handwriting, though.", Xiao Zhan said before  reading the note.

Yibo took the note from his hand and read it:
'Don't forget to clean Doge's eyes with a soft cloth soaked in warm water before applying the eye drops. Doge is grateful to you for taking care of her.'
"Yeah, it's not MianMian's handwriting. It's probably written by the vet.", Yibo entered in the boyfriend role.
"Let's take care of Doge's eyes, now.", he said, sitting crossed legs on the floor with Doge in his lap.

Yibo was extremely focused on Xiao Zhan's hands, but not to watch him pouring the eye drops in  the cat's eyes, but to avoid any direct  touch of their hands. 
Yibo didn't even know if he avoided that touch because he didn't desire that touch or because he desired it too much! Ufff!
 

But then he almost suffered a heart attack when  Xiao